NCKA meets BRTF 3/2

[polepole]

Roberta Reyes Cordero: "Hi my name is Robera Reyes Cordero and I was a BTRF member for the South Coast, where we did our best to take into account the concerns of kayak fishermen".

Allen Sansano (cutting her off): " ... and they were DEVASTATED."

RRC: "We all need to sacrifice."

AS: "I appreciate your efforts, but they were still DEVASTATED."

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And while we were discussing the impacts of kayak fishermen.

Samantha Murray: "That sounds like a lot of fish to me."

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Grrr ... I need a beer. More when I return.

-Allen

[SBD]

BTDT-hang in there. Samantha is a piece of work.

[polepole]

Beer #1 done. Grrr, I'm still seething. More after beer #2

-Allen

[Sleeter]

BTDT-hang in there. Samantha is a piece of work.

I do not hate many people... but...

I am looking forward to tomorrow. Might want to check out the live stream of the Commission meeting. Its going to be good.

[polepole]

We had a little pre-meet before the BRTF showed up. We talked about emphasizing a few items. First and foremost was access and range and low impact. We also wanted to key in on the North Coast as a destination place for many of our members, that we come here with our families to recreate and spend money, and that it revolves around responsible harvest. I wanted to present that the sport is large enough that our concerns are real, valid, and important. Rockfish and Tote had personal stories to tell and we encouraged that. Make it personal, make if family oriented. And they did an excellent job doing that. We wanted to avoid general complaining about the MLPA and the process since we had limited time to make a point and we wanted to concentrate on making it something that was productive and easy to relate to. And we also wanted to emphasize a local presence, so many thank to the Autumn of Fort Bragg Marine & Kayak, Jeff and Cate of Liquid Fusion, Allen (Dave's friend), and DAVE for doing so. All our points were made succinctly in our short time talking to the BRTF.

One important discussion that came up was that the kayak business that Fort Bragg Marine & Kayak and others support was based around responsible harvest. Samatha Murray asked what percentage of their business was "lookiloo kayakers" and Autumn stated 1% and that those 1% were typically there with members of their families that were there with harvest goals in mind. Reduce the harvesters and you remove the lookiloos. Right on!!! I don't think that was the answer Samantha was looking for.

WTF is Samantha doing intruding on our time to interact with the BRTF? This was NOT her time to make a statement, yet she chose to intrude. I think it's important to let the I-Team know that this was inappropriate as she is not involved in the NC MLPA in any official capacity and she was not invited to talk to the BRTF during OUR session.

Love her or hate her, but Catherine Reheis-Boyd made it a point to come up to us afterwards and personally thanked us for our feedback. That showed class on her part and none of the other BRTF or I-Team members said anything directly to us afterwards.

-Allen